The most famous photograph in history

80 years ago today, the flag went up at Iwo Jima

This photo of U.S. Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi following the Battle of Iwo Jima became the most reproduced image in the history of photography. (Ken Rosenthal/Associated Press)

I drove by Northside High School in Warner Robins the other day, past the house where I met Jimmy Stewart 21 years ago.

No, not actor Jimmy Stewart, who played the George Bailey character from  “It’s A Wonderful Life,’’ even though Stewart’s wife, Carolyn, always claimed her husband’s blue eyes could give Paul Newman a run for his money.

Stewart served with the Fifth Marine Division in World War II and saw the flag raised on Iwo Jima – 80 years ago today.

Iwo Jima was the costliest battle in Marine history. Of the 6,821 Americans killed in 35 days of fighting, 5,931 were Marines, accounting for nearly one-third of the Marine losses in WWII.

After 36 days of combat, three Marine divisions of about 70,000 men took control of the 8-square-mile volcanic island in what became the largest force of Marines ever deployed in a single battle.

Stewart, who died in 2011, never talked about it much. But, like others in the Greatest Generation, we can never let their stories leave with them.